Песенный ритм «цярэжка» в беларуси и на пограничьях
The rhythm of the song ‘ciarezhka’ in Belarus and in neighbouring territories

Summary/Abstract: Syllabic rhythmic is a very important element of a folk song language, due to which melography, dynamics of development in time and interethnic contacts in folklore is studied. Presence of cultural contacts of Belarusians with their neighbours is illustrated by the example of one rhythmic-cultural paradigm. It combines songs from different seasonal-ritual cycles on the ground of a single common attri­bute – heptasyllabic rhythmic formula with temporal ratio of syllable 1111212. In Bela­rusian folklore studies this formula is known as a “ciarezhka rhythm” (CR), since it is an attribute of the North Belarusian Christmas game “Ciarezhka’s marriage”. However, not a comic and dance sense but a sacral-marital aspect proper contributed to wider distribution of tunes with CR and it also defined their thematic orientation beyond a Christmas game. For the first time the article considers CR genre distribution using broad genre and ethnic material. CR can be found in Lithuanian songs of Dzūkija (southern Lithuania), in spring songs of Podlasie (eastern Poland), in wedding and stubble songs of Volhynia and the Rivno region (north-western Ukraine). Marginal zones of the RC areal can be also traced in neighbouring territories of Latvia and Russia (the Pskov region). Southerly the isodox stretches to the Vinnitsya and Transcarpathian regions. Within Belarus CR functions go beyond the scope of a Christmas performance. CR also penetrated into the wedding song complex. In transitional zones of the areal it can be met in songs from other cycles – spring, Midsummer Day (kupala), stubble, baptistic etc. The south-eastern branch of the CR isodox (the Mahilioǔ region) is characterized by a stylistic transformation of the studied rhythm in round dances. The CR tunes loose their playing sense and sound more lyrically here. To solve the question of initial RC function and the centre of distribution of the songs based on the “ciarezhka” rhythm, possible pattern prototypes of the given heptasyllabic structure are under consideration. Danger of monogenic tunes substitution with vocal-rhythmic “homonyms” is admitted. The cartography of the phenomenon will be studied from the melodic point of view.

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